Not many people may be aware that the ruling party in Nigeria is trying to reinvent itself.It was at the beginning of this month during a dinner party marking 6 years of the ruling People’s Democratic Party that its chairman, Mr Audu Ogbeh announced a 40 member committee to suggest ways of reforming the party. The committee under the chairmanship of a board of trustee member, Alhaji Iro Danmusa is expected to suggest ways of dealing with party discipline and supremacy. The reforms of the the PDP are expected to help it brighten its chance for the 2007 elections. There are also fears that the reform committee is the beginning of an agenda aimed at softening the ground for a possible third term for the current president. Our attention at this point is however going to be focussed on what is already in the public domain.
At some point in the life of organisations, it becomes important to reform in order to remain relevant to the changing times. Indeed reforms are part of the process that any organisation can use to strengthen and refocus itself. Without this kind of periodic introspection an organisation can die by instalment without realising it.
This newspaper commends the courage of the leadership of the PDP in realising the need to reform the party. As the party should be well aware, many see it as a gathering of strange bed fellows who can never truly blend into a single coherent body. That is why there have been predictions that at some point, maybe in the run up to the 2007 elections, the party could break up along the lines of the ambitions of the political Godfathers waiting for their chance to put it asunder. This then begs the question of whether the PDP can even be reformed and for what purpose?
Of course the party chairman has shouted himself hoarse about the indiscipline within the party. In fact even the occasion where the reform agenda was unfolded shows that the supremacy of the party is only observed in breach. How else can one explain the absence of almost all governors, the President and his Vice from such an important party function? Imagine if it were the president calling the governors to a meeting in Aso Villa. It is no surprise that most of the governors who had no time for the party function abandoned everything to be at the burial ceremony of the mother of the Delta state governor recently.
Key to the reform agenda of the PDP is the need to define whether it is truly a political party or a club as one of its leaders says. If it is a political party it ought to enunciate its philosophy and programme and show clearly whether those elected under its platform are bound to implement its programmes or they are free to abandon the party as soon as they get elected. This will be clearly helpful to Nigerians who know they did not vote for the painful reforms that President Obasanjo is implementing now. Even as we understand that Nigeria is not operating a parliamentary system of government, the American model we are copying does not allow the president to abandon the platform he/she used to attain power in the persuit of his own agenda.
If the PDP is serious about reforms, it should promote democracy within its organs and champion democracy in the way candidates for elective offices emerge. One sure item for reform is the delegates system of electing flag bearers. As it is now the system is so heavily loaded in favour of incumbents that there is little chance of fairness in it. How else can anyone describe a system where a governor or president’s aides are all part of delegates to elect a candidate for gubernatorial or presidential election which is supposed to provide level playing field for incumbents and non incumbents alike?
It is our hope that the Iro Danmusa reform panel will be able to find answers to this and many other issues that need to be raised in any reform process worth its name. We also expect the committee not to allow itself to be used for any subterranean goals as that will surely soil their reputation. All their effort will however be wasted if at the end of it all the committee merely scratches the surface of the problems or its recommendations are received with a lot of ceremony and thereafter left to gather dust in some cabinet.
